MAY - from O.Fr. mai, from L. Majus, Maius mensis "month of May," possibly from Maja, Maia a Roman earth goddess (wife of Vulcan) whose name is possibly from *mag-ya "she who is great,"

MAY DAY - This distress call is a phonetic representation of the French m'aider, literally help me. In this case the change from the French is deliberate and not a result of corruption over the years. Its use dates to the 1927 International Radio Telegraph Convention.

MAY DAY - Accounts of merrymaking on this date are attested from c.1240. Synonymous with "communist procession" from at least 1906. Maypole "high pole painted with spiral stripes and decorated with flowers, set up in public places for May Day celebrants to dance around" is attested from 1554 but certainly much older, as the first mention of it is in an ordinance banning them, and there are references to such erections, though not by this name from a mid-14c. Welsh poem.